MOBILE, Ala. (March 4, 2008) - Sophomore Sinead O'Sullivan (Galway, Ireland) became the second women's golfer in ETSU history to win an outright individual championship, and her efforts helped power the ETSU women's golf team to its first team championship of the 2007-08 season. The Buccaneers dominated the University of South Alabama Lady Jaguar Invitational, pulling away to a 17-stroke win over Southern Miss Tuesday at the Azalea City Golf Course.

O'Sullivan fired a 3-under-par 69 in the final round to win the individual title by two strokes over Southern Miss' Virginia Espejo. Meanwhile, O'Sullivan was joined at the top of the leaderboard by senior Natalia Giraldo (Cali, Colombia) and sophomore Laura Jansone (Jurmala, Latvia), who finished tied for third and 12th, respectively.

"It really feels good to win, and I hope our team holds on to that feeling the rest of the year," said ETSU head coach Stefanie Reynolds, whose team now has a victory as well as a strong fourth place finish in its first two events of the spring season. "After our practice round here we talked a lot about our goals this year. We want to win every tournament we play, and winning a conference championship is just one step. We want to make nationals and play well there."

As for O'Sullivan, Reynolds said she could see this type of performance coming from the young sophomore.

"Sinead has always been a quite competitor that we could count on to post a good score," Reynolds said. "We talk about how having a player go low is crucial to winning a tournament, and this time Sinead gave us that score. She just started making birdies and feeling good about her game. I was really proud of her."

O'Sullivan said she was obviously happy with the victory - both individually and as a team.

"It's great to have my first college win. I'm really happy," O'Sullivan said. "The hardest thing was playing the wind, but I was able to fight through it. I left a few shots out there yesterday (in the first round), so I was eager to get out there today and learn from those mistakes. I had three birdies and an eagle on the front nine, and I knew the back nine was tougher, but I was able to play well and not make many mistakes"

Along with O'Sullivan, Giraldo and Jansone, the Bucs got a 19th-place finish from junior Lucy Gould (Bargoed, Wales). As a team, the Bucs posted one score in the 60s, and eight more rounds in the 70s out of 10 total rounds in the event.

The Bucs will return to action later this week in the Pinehurst Challenge, which is set to begin March 9. For more on ETSU women's golf and updates throughout the spring season, visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the women's golf link.